Saturday, 19 July 2014

A dog's life

Well for Nicky and Nora it's a tough life I am sure Nicky has plenty to complain about.
Here is his story:

Me and Nora at birth we are about one week old here in this photo.

Here I am in Canada of all places, I was born in Capena, Lazio just outside of la Città Aeterna, my parents where Italian-Hungarian and my dad a National Champion Show dog. So I thought my life would be spent in shows around Italy with lots of Paparazzi. One day out of the blue, when I was 6 weeks old, I was kidnapped and left my relatives and the farm. We, Nora and I, she is not my sister by the way. Her story is a little different, I knew her relatives but they are hunters, her mom was a Champion Wild Boar Hunting dog.

La famiglia mia a Capena

Anyway I digress, so we arrived in Rome, did I tell you I cried and cried in the car all the way to Rome. The one with the beard sat with me in the back and cuddled me, so I would not be so scared. He understood my sensitive little puppy nature.
We had this rather nice place to live on Via Dei Villini, a large place with a very nice garden, the food was good and we had nothing to complain about. It was not the farm with all our families but hey we were getting lots of attention and cuddles and toys and blankets we would chew, we also chewed on furniture and concrete. We have good teeth.

Via Dei Villini 26, Rome

Our new home in Rome, come in kids.

We were well looked after and our Vet understood dachshunds since he had 8 of them at his home.
Then one day, we are taken to the airport, I was very upset and made a point of letting everyone know, I barked as loud as I could, people were afraid but alas to no avail, we left our beloved Italy for Ottawa. It is not Rome I can tell you that much. I was only 2 years old when this happened but I still remember it. The new place in Ottawa was also nice and very green by a lovely canal, that does not matter much to me because I am not much of a walker unless it is a dog walk with lots of paparazzi and people giving me biscuit. Nora on the other hand loves it, so much to hunt she says and to sniff out. She goes for long walks along the Rideau Canal and comes back exhausted but happy. Oh well if she likes it who am I to comment.

Now my days are simple, I usually wake up around 06:30 in the morning, if there is sunlight well then maybe earlier. I love sunlight, I give one sharp and loud bark to wake up the servants, they are very lazy and I often have to give one to two more loud barks to wake them up, Canadians are so lazy its terrible. You would never see that in Italy I assure you. So one of them will prepare my breakfast and Nora's breakfast too. She is very quiet in the morning so I do all the barking.

Sun is so nice in the morning after breakfast.

After our breakfast we go out for a short walk, just so I can see what is going on out there and what kind of weather we are having. The winters in Ottawa are terrible and I hate them, we have to put coats on and boots otherwise we freeze our paws. I have pleaded time and again to return to Italy for the Winter months, to no avail, they don't listen these people.

Then I come back in and will go and sit in the sunshine for a morning snooze, love the sunshine and could spend my whole day just lying there. We have many more walks in the day time and each time I make a point of having a little snooze.

Yes my days are quiet unless the cleaning lady comes in and I make a point of letting her know I am here and to leave me alone, not to make noise and not interfere with my routine but they do, it is so unfair.

Now I know that Nora has gone to the Vet lately for her annual physical and teeth cleaning.
I also went to the Vet and declared to be in perfect health. I am only 5 years old now. But now I hear that next week I am going back to the dentist for my teeth cleaning. What a strange idea they have here. Do I really have to go? No one asked me what I thought about it.
So you can imagine how stressful all this is going to be. Why do they always have to disturb my routine.

You can see and appreciate that I have a difficult life in exile here in Canada, thank God for the biscuits and the celery, carrots, the nice cheese and other goodies I get from time to time.